Participatory Design Sprints - Employing PD Principles in a Condensed Format

Most Participatory Design processes stretch for months or years as they pursue ideals related to empowerment, mutual learning and democracy. While this approach has demonstrated success as reported in countless PDC papers it is inherently resource intensive and potentially difficult to adopt in settings beyond research. In this paper, we explore the concept of Participatory Design Sprints and discuss to what extent it is possible to execute very condensed processes while still committing to core Participatory Design principles. We explore this question by reporting from 11 cases where we engaged in condensed Participatory Design processes with schools and municipalities to establish makerspaces as an educational facility. We conclude the paper by discussing the potentials of Participatory Design sprints and outline avenues for future work.